This invention relates to novel hexahydrobenzodipyrrole compounds useful in preparing novel, thermally stable, flame-resistant polymers and to such polymers.
Clothing normally affords little protection to the wearer against the thermal effects of flame or radiation and, as a consequence, methods and materials are under investigation with the objective being the development of clothing systems having a higher level of thermal protection. One approach has been to synthesize new organic polymers having improved thermal stability. While a number of polymers are presently known which have good high temperature properties, only a few have been successfully converted to fibers. The novel hexahydrobenzodipyrrole compounds of this invention have been copolymerized to produce novel polymers which can be formed into fibers and films which exhibit good high temperature properties.